(1) If the person committing an offence punishable under this Act is company, every person, who at the time the offence was committed was in charge of , and was responsible to , the company for the conduct of business of the company, as well as the company shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to proceeded against and punished accordingly:
Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) where any such offence has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent connivance of is attributable to any negligence on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company , such director, manager, secretary and other officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Explanation .- For the purposes of the section-
(a) "Company" means a body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individual , and
(b) "Director" in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.